Early Release

[GregJWillis]

Re: Early Release

...One thing that the right hand drill has shown me is the correct hand position or wrist cock at the top of the swing. I have been playing for 11 years not really knowing the correct position or even how to hold that wrist position on the way down....a friend suggested I try a drill where I hit the ball using only the left hand/arm and to try to square the club face by picturing the back of the left hand facing the target at impact...Do these two drills go hand in hand? The one I just mentioned and the right hand drill?

Yes. Maintain a cupped trailing wrist into impact (keeping the flipping at bay) and having the leading hand's top (or back of) face the target is correct.

Natural rotation of the arms happens into impact with a lengthening of the trailing arm (unfolding) and a shortening of the leading (refolding). Trailing arm ends up folding back over the leading arm (just as it did in reverse when you went for the backswing). Forcing this rotational move to happen alone leads to mistiming and inconsistency. Keeping a relaxation with simple tension-support does the trick...that wonderful acceleration whip.

[Neil18]

Re: Early Release

I bought the 3 skills book and it should arrive any day now. I will give it a try.

I played 18 holes today. I was very inconsistent which is to be expected when you are trying to implement something new. I feel very awkward because I am probably thinking way too much. I was thinking about where my hands are at the top and also trying to hold the lag and drop the arms on the way down. I did feel like I had a bit of a reverse pivot at times and was pushing it to the right on some shots and hooking it as well. Like I said very INCONSISTENT!
One thing that the right hand drill has shown me is the correct hand position or wrist cock at the top of the swing. I have been playing for 11 years not really knowing the correct position or even how to hold that wrist position on the way down. I would imagine that may sound crazy but I have been able to play like that and put up some decent scores at times. Like rotator said I think my hands and wrists were real tense causing me to flip it at impact. Afterwards on the range a friend suggested I try a drill where I hit the ball using only the left hand/arm and to try to square the club face by picturing the back of the left hand facing the target at impact. I only did this for a few minutes but found it pretty difficult. When I was able to hit the ball in that position it felt good though. Do these two drills go hand in hand? The one I just mentioned and the right hand drill?

Hi Yukon,

Are you an upright swinger, or of the flatter variety?

[yukon]

Re: Early Release

I am not sure. How can I tell which is which?

[jambalaya]

Re: Early Release

here is a good video that explains it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBS0M...ursecrets.com/

When I was watching the video I kept thinking about actually releasing the club at the top. That is what I thought he was saying. But maybe he didn't mean it in the conventional way as in losing your angle. I also thought about completely relaxing the arms and opening the grip and letting go of the club. Or just throwing the club down the fairway. I've always wanted to get a bunch of old clubs and just hurl them down the fairway with the golf swing to see if that would teach me anything.

[yukon]

Re: Early Release

I felt my weight was on my right foot after I completed my swing, leaning away from the target.

[rotator]

Re: Early Release

I felt my weight was on my right foot after I completed my swing, leaning away from the target.

yukon,

You know that is a classic result of reverse pivot, which I discussed in earlier posts.

When you set up to the ball, as well as your forward upper body tilt, you should have a slight tilt of the spine, also from the hip, away from the target. This will not seem unnatural, as your trailing hand is below the forward hand and will make your back shoulder lower than the forward anyways. This gets your head behind the ball, as well as some weight to the back to start with.

Then take your backswing, as my previous post, so you turn with your hands, arms, shoulders, upper body rotating around that tilted spine, until the shoulders line up to the back foot .

Just try the whole swing in slow motion isometric, even without a club in your hands. As before, the teachings I follow have me presetting the wrists, because that too eliminates thinking about how and when the wrists should start to break. When you get to the top, even without a club, you will feel the coiled power rooted in that back foot and leg and all up your body, shoulders, arms and wrists, and you did not have to think about it. Lower body weight shift and hip rotation to start the transition of the release of this power and let the downswing go as described before.

Ted

[Neil18]

Re: Early Release

I am not sure. How can I tell which is which?

Ooh I'm glad I asked, and you will be too!

An upright swing tends to see the left arm raising above the level of the shoulders in the backswing. A flatter one sees the left arm level with or even slightly under the shoulder line.

The reason I ask is that there's some things that you can do to help one type of swing that will only kill the other. It's best you find out which one you use as it will tailor which stuff to try out.

Extreme example of an upright swinger is Jim Furyk. The extreme example of a flatter swinger is Ben Hogan.

[rotator]

Re: Early Release

When I was watching the video I kept thinking about actually releasing the club at the top. That is what I thought he was saying. But maybe he didn't mean it in the conventional way as in losing your angle. I also thought about completely relaxing the arms and opening the grip and letting go of the club. Or just throwing the club down the fairway. I've always wanted to get a bunch of old clubs and just hurl them down the fairway with the golf swing to see if that would teach me anything.

jambalaya,

That why I said in an earlier post, I thought that many recreational golfer would misinterpret that video. I took flak for that. They would see what seems to be Nicklaus saying release the angle from the top. In fact, when you look at the swings in the video, he retains much of the lag, all the way to the delivery position, when the true release happens. He is quoted as referring to this latter as the real true release by Martin Hall in one of his instructional videos, which I had previously posted. I think Nicklaus was saying don't hold back on swinging right from the get-go., which is what you see in all the great golfers, they are building up their very high swing speeds from the get-go. It is not as easy for recreational golfers. It is awesome to see these golfers retain their 90 degree lag, in many cases increasing to angle, from the very top all the way to the delivery position, moving at a very fast speed.

Ted

[rotator]

Re: Early Release

Ooh I'm glad I asked, and you will be too!

An upright swing tends to see the left arm raising above the level of the shoulders in the backswing. A flatter one sees the left arm level with or even slightly under the shoulder line.

The reason I ask is that there's some things that you can do to help one type of swing that will only kill the other. It's best you find out which one you use as it will tailor which stuff to try out.

Extreme example of an upright swinger is Jim Furyk. The extreme example of a flatter swinger is Ben Hogan.

Neil,

As I said previously, I suspected from his descriptions of his problems, and now being inconsistent on the lag swing, is that yukon is lifting his arms to the top and getting a false sense of the shoulders turning. This is exactly what you are saying could be happening with the upright swing. In effect, it could, and in my past history did, result in the reverse pivot and an over the top casting move. I asked yukon to check with the front foot lifting process to see if that was the case.

Furyk takes his arms straight up on the backswing, but he loops it and drops it to the inside. From there on, he is much the same as all good golfers, tremendous lag and all. At no time, does he reverse pivot though. Upright swingers with traditional swings are Tom Watson, Nicklaus, Don January. I believe many of these upright swingers are also two planers, whereas the modern golfers tend to be closer to the flatter body swinger type.

Ted

[yukon]

Re: Early Release

Ted, I feel as if my shoulders are turning but I will have to have a friend watch me as I swing. Perhaps I am not turning as much as I feel and raising my arms instead. I will check it out.

[rotator]

Re: Early Release

yukon,

If you do this, which I described in an earlier post, you will know. You don't even need a club in your hands, or any one to watch. Take your normal set up and turn to the top.

You can check for RP, by taking the swing to the top and then try to lift your front foot off the ground. If you struggle with this, you have not shifted your weight to the back leg, it's still on the front.

If you can't lift your foot because of the weight on it or when you lift the foot, you fall forward, you have RP. Because the weight is not shifted to the back and you are "perched" over the front foot, when you swing down and around, you will lose your balance and fall forward. The brain will instinctively try to protect you from losing your balance and falling on your face and compensate, which is to fall back.

Please give this a go, and if you find this is the problem, try the shoulder turn process I described earlier.

Ted